RSS conducts its foot march in Puducherry

Scores of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) volunteers, both boys and men in uniform, marched on the streets of Puducherry in a procession on Sunday, even as the neighbouring Tamil Nadu denied them permission and pulled up by a court to allow them on November 6 instead.

Bharatiya Janata Party MP in Puducherry, S Selvaganapathy, flagged off the procession around 4pm where the members wearing their uniform (dark olive green trousers, white shirt, cap, belt, black shoes) were led by a musical band, and vehicles which carried saffron flags.

A Namassivayam, present home minister and former president of the Puducherry Congress Pradesh Committee, who was among the rebels to switch over to the BJP last year, also participated wearing the traditional uniform of the RSS, the ideological mentor of the BJP.

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More than 500 RSS volunteers from various shakas (branches) participated in the march, which culminated in a public meeting. The procession went through Puducherry’s arterial roads and important points such as Nehru street. More than a 1,000 police officers were deployed along the march route to prevent any law and order issue.

The superintendent of police (east) in Puducherry’s National Democratic Alliance government by an order on September 16 granted permission for the RSS with certain conditions. However, the opposition, which included Puducherry’s former Congress chief minister V Narayanasamy, and DMK leaders, held a human chain on Sunday morning, opposing the permission granted to RSS. They raised slogans that Puducherry was a peaceful territory and Hindutva was being pushed on them.

In both Puducherry and Tamil Nadu, the RSS said that the march was being carried out on account of three reasons: Vijayadashami festival (when the RSS was founded in 1925), B R Ambedkar’s 125th birth anniversary and 75th year of India’s Independence.

Meanwhile in Tamil Nadu, the RSS and DMK-led government are facing the matter in the Madras high court. After the Tamil Nadu government disallowed the route march initially scheduled on October 2 due to law and order concerns, the court on Friday directed Tamil Nadu police to grant permission on November 6 instead. The court said contempt action will be initiated if the order is violated.

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The same single judge bench G K Ilanthiraiyan had on September 22 gave its nod for RSS’s route march, with 11 conditions. But the state government argued that they have intelligence reports of law and order disruption following multiple petrol bomb attacks on BJP and RSS members, which erupted after the National Investigation Agency raided the now banned Popular Front of India on September 22 and 27.